How to Write a Teaching Philosophy

Short answer: a teaching philosophy statement is a one- to two-page essay, written in the first person, that shows a search committee what you want students to learn, how you teach and how you know it is working. The statements committees remember are built on specific examples from your own classes and tailored to each institution's students. Below: brainstorming questions, a structure, rewrites from four fields, a sample opening and closing, and a checklist for your draft.

By the AcademicCareers.com editorial team · Updated October 14, 2026 · 12-minute read

What a teaching statement is for

Search committees can't sit in on every applicant's class, so they read your teaching statement instead. As the University of North Carolina Writing Center puts it, a good statement helps the committee imagine what it would be like inside your classroom.

Washington University's Center for Teaching and Learning lists the questions readers bring: Is this person qualified to teach our courses? Do they want to teach, and why? If I walked into their class, what would I see? What would our students gain?

Summarizing a study of search committee chairs (Meizlish and Kaplan, 2008), the University of Minnesota's Center for Educational Innovation lists five traits that strong statements share:

• Evidence of practice, with specific examples
• A focus on students: what they do and learn
• Reflection: what you noticed and changed
• A clear sense that you value teaching
• Clear, readable writing

A teaching statement is not a list of courses (your academic CV does that), a summary of evaluations or an essay on higher education. It is your argument, with evidence, about how you teach.

Weak vs. strong: examples from four fields

The fastest way to improve a draft is to replace every sentence that could appear in anyone's application with one only you could write. The Minnesota center's guide shows general and specific versions of the same claim side by side. Pick a field to see a generic sentence rewritten.

Each strong version names a course, describes what students do and gives the reader a reason to believe it works. Use that pattern for every middle paragraph of your statement.

Questions to answer before you write

Don't start with a blank page. Spend half an hour answering these questions, adapted from the brainstorming prompts in the Minnesota and UNC guides:

• What should students be able to do after your course, beyond knowing the content?
• Which class session or assignment are you proudest of, and why did it work?
• What did you change after a class didn't go as planned?
• How do you know when students are learning, and what do you do when they aren't?
• How do you support students who arrive with different preparation, schedules and goals?
• How does your research or professional work shape your teaching?
• How do you handle generative AI in your assignments, and how do you explain your approach to students?

Circle the answers that come with a story attached; those stories become your examples. If you haven't taught your own course, draw on work as a teaching assistant, tutor, mentor or coach and describe how you would teach specific courses, as UNC's handout recommends.

A structure that works

There's no required format. UNC suggests organizing around goals, methods and assessment, around a few themes, or as a story of past, present and future. This five-part version of the first approach fits most fields:

1. Opening. Your central goal for students, in your discipline's terms, introduced with a hook: a moment, question or problem from your classroom.
2. How you teach (two or three paragraphs). Each makes one claim and proves it with one example: an activity, an assignment or a change you made.
3. How you know it works. How you check understanding and give feedback, and what you changed as a result.
4. Teaching every student. Concrete practices that help students with different preparation and circumstances succeed. UNC advises weaving this through the statement rather than adding it at the end.
5. Closing. What you're working on as a teacher, and the courses you would teach at this institution, named from its catalog.

Headings are optional: useful on two pages, usually unnecessary on one.

A sample opening and closing

Here is a full opening and closing for a fictional candidate, Dr. Maya Ortiz, an environmental chemist applying to Example State University, a regional public university.

Opening:

Most students in my General Chemistry course have never wondered what is in the water from their kitchen tap. By the third week, they are testing it. Whether they go on to become chemists, nurses or city planners, I want every student to leave my course able to ask a measurable question, collect data carefully and decide what the numbers do and do not show. That goal shapes everything I teach, from the first lab, where students design their own sampling plan, to the final project, where they explain their results to someone outside the class.

Closing:

I am still learning how to keep a 120-seat lecture as active as a 24-seat lab. This year I am adding short peer-instruction questions to every class and tracking whether quiz scores on those topics improve. At Example State, I would be glad to teach General Chemistry I and II and Environmental Chemistry, and to develop an upper-level course in field methods in which students monitor the river that runs past campus. My aim is the same in every course: students who can look at a claim about the world around them and ask how we know.

Why it works: the opening states a concrete goal and why it matters to students who won't become chemists. The closing shows reflection, names real courses and returns to the opening idea, so the statement reads as one argument.

Tailoring it to the institution

The same statement is unlikely to appeal to both a research university and a community college, as UNC's handout points out. Keep your core philosophy and change the examples, the courses and the students you describe.

At teaching-focused colleges, expect the statement to carry more weight and to come up again in the interview. If an ad for community college faculty jobs poses a specific question about teaching, answer that question directly instead of sending your standard statement.

Length, format and evidence

Length. One to two pages. Washington University's center recommends one to two single-spaced pages unless the ad says otherwise; MIT's career office calls it typically one to two pages; Minnesota's center says one to two double-spaced pages is usual. If the ad sets a limit, follow it exactly.

Format. Write in the first person and mostly in the present tense ("I ask students to..."), in a professional but conversational tone, as Washington University advises. Define technical terms, use the same font and header as your CV and cover letter, and save the file as a PDF.

Evidence. Back at least one claim with evidence: stronger student work or results, a comment that recurs in your evaluations, a peer observation, a teaching award or a course you redesigned. Keep a teaching file of syllabi, assignments, student work (shared with permission), evaluations and observation notes. It will also help you answer faculty interview questions.

Common mistakes, and a checklist for your draft

• Beliefs without examples. "I believe in active learning" tells the committee nothing until you show the activity.
• Undefined buzzwords. If you write "critical thinking," say what it looks like in your course, as UNC advises.
• A course list, or an essay on teaching in general. Your CV lists the courses, and Washington University's center warns against commentary on the state of teaching. Write about your teaching.
• Only the teacher's point of view. Describe what students do, not just what you do.
• One statement for every job. Committees notice when the students and courses don't fit their institution.
• Running long, or contradicting your CV. A third page rarely helps, and course titles and dates should match across documents.

Then check your draft against this list, once for each application.

Statements for adjunct and online roles

More than a third of the live jobs on AcademicCareers.com are part-time or adjunct positions (October 2026), and many of them ask for a short teaching statement. One page is usually enough:

• Name the courses you can teach, using the department's own titles or course numbers.
• Write about the students these courses serve, often working adults or students in career programs.
• If you work in your field, show how that work becomes classroom material, as in the business example above.

For online roles, describe how you teach online, not just that you have: how you keep a presence in an asynchronous course (weekly announcements, feedback within a set number of days), how you design discussions students actually join, and which learning management systems you know. A sentence on accessibility, such as captioned videos and readable documents, shows you know what online students need. Browse adjunct faculty jobs and online adjunct jobs, and see our guide on how to become an adjunct professor.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a teaching philosophy statement be?

One to two single-spaced pages, unless the job ad says otherwise. A tight page with strong examples beats two pages of general beliefs.

Is a teaching statement the same as a teaching philosophy?

Yes, the terms are used interchangeably. A teaching portfolio is different: it usually adds syllabi, evaluations and samples of student work to the statement.

Can I write a teaching statement with no teaching experience?

Yes. Draw on work as a teaching assistant, tutor or mentor, describe how you would teach specific courses and be concrete about your methods. Write as a teacher, not as a student.

Should a teaching philosophy include citations?

A brief one can help if a specific approach from education research shapes your teaching, but your own examples matter far more. The statement is not a literature review.

Should I use headings or bullet points?

Headings are optional. Avoid bullet points in the body: the statement is an essay, and committees read it as a sample of your writing.

Do I need a different statement for a community college?

Keep the same core, but lead with how you teach and support the students the college serves, and name courses from its catalog.